Alcoholic Drinks: Children

David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences were recorded in respect of retailers selling alcohol to those aged under 18 years in each year since 1997; how many police cautions were issued; and what the average fine levied was.

Vernon Coaker: holding answer 10 September 2007
	Information on the number of recorded offences of retailers selling alcohol to those aged under 18 years are summary and are not included in the police recorded crime statistics.
	Statistics for the number of police cautions issued and the average fine have been provided by the Ministry of Justice and are given in the table for 1997-2005. Data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007.
	
		
			  Retailers selling alcohol to those aged under 18 
			   Num ber of police cautions issued( 1,2)  Average fine (£) 
			 1997 171 227 
			 1998 76 212 
			 1999 69 194 
			 2000 53 206 
			 2001 48 208 
			 2002 59 249 
			 2003 63 253 
			 2004 101 238 
			 2005 98 246 
			 (1 )These data are on a principal offence basis.  (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative databases generated by the police. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.